I realize in the big scheme of things, the complimentary toothbrush and toothpaste found in most mid-to-high end hotel rooms is minimal. But, based on a recent stay at the Grand Hyatt Incheon (just outside of Seoul, South Korea), I am wondering if the Grand Hyatt brand is moving away from complimentary toothbrushes.

The Grand Hyatt Incheon

A few friends and I had decided to get a day room at the Grand Hyatt Incheon, as we had a roughly 14 hour layover during the day and figured it would be helpful to have a base of operations. So we checked into a room in the West Tower (this was the new tower built around the time the hotel switched brands from a Regency to a Grand). The room was pretty standard, but the thing that struck me was what was in the bathroom drawer.

Cost for a Toothbrush and Toothpaste at the Grand Hyatt Incheon

Now I didn’t particularly need the toothbrush or toothpaste – I had brought my own on this particular trip. But seeing the charge, I had to inquire.

A public tweet garnered a collection of responses, generally expressing distaste.

The tweet also received a request from the Hyatt Concierge team to Direct Message them. I explained my concerns, and they forwarded those concerns on to the hotel’s Executive Assistant Manager, who I caught up with later that evening in the lounge.

Is the Grand Hyatt brand moving away from complimentary toothbrushes?

Speaking with the hotel’s Executive Assistant Manager, it seemed that the direction from Chicago, or Hyatt Corporate was to limit one gratis toothbrush per standard room, with additional toothbrushes and toothpaste at a cost (in this case, 6,600 Won which translates to $6.14 US).

I haven’t been able to get Hyatt to confirm this, but, it certainly is one data point indicating that Grand Hyatt brand may be moving away from complimentary toothbrushes.

Moving away from complimentary toothbrushes at Grand Hyatt hotels, it would seem like a small cost savings, though I’d imagine it could generate a decent amount of frustration.

Wrapping Up

If Hyatt really is moving away from offering complimentary toothbrushes at Grand Hyatt branded hotels, it’s not a tectonic shift. It makes me wonder if this is more akin to American Airlines removing olives from the salad in domestic first class back in the 1980’s.I doubt it will change anyone’s stay habits, but it still strikes me as cheap, especially when Grand Hyatt’s are largely viewed as a high quality hotel brand. Obviously Grand’s are behind the Andaz and Park Hyatt brands, but I’d argue that they would fall as a close 3rd in the Hyatt family.

What do you think of the possibility of the Grand Hyatt brand no longer offering complimentary toothbrushes?

This is the final section of a set of observations from a short weekend to Seoul, South Korea. The previous posts were observations of our flights, and of our hotel, the Grand Hyatt Seoul. We only had two and a half days in Seoul, so we primarily stuck to closer areas near the hotel in Myeong-dong, Itaewon, and Yongsan.

Seeing the Sites

The first day we walked a bunch, below roughly outlines the route we took; we typically just walk in a general direction.

Impromptu walking tour.

It was interesting though because Itaewon-ro happened to have country plaques in the sidewalk,

Country Plaques in sidewalk.

We’re also dog people, and noticed this guy looking down on us.

Clearly bull dogs are big in Korea (at least on this block).

Completely unplanned, even though it is pretty clearly marked on the above map, we ended up stopping at the War Memorial of Korea. They had US and Korean exhibits It was pretty interesting to walk around.

War Memorial of Korea

We ultimately walked to Yongsan Electronics Market, although I can’t say it was particularly “awesome.” We ended up spending much of the next day and a half in Namdaemun Market and Myeong-dong areas. The cool part of Namdaemun Market is that there are some wholesale shops as well as your general open air market.

Sampling Seoul’s Culinary side

We made it a point to try a variety of food in Seoul. Usually I’m hesitant with this, but I decided that I absolutely needed to try some kimchi (I regretted having too healthy a helping!). The Korean Barbecue was pretty good though!

Korean BBQ prepared right in front of us.

There’s also some street food, and “semi-street food” like “Isaac” in Myeong-dong, which had a great ham, egg and cabbage toasted sandwhich.

Great toasted ham, egg, and cabbage.

And if that food isn’t to your tastes, perhaps you can order some McDelivery.

McDelivery

Wrapping up

We ended up walking a bunch in Seoul, which was refreshing, and how we usually like to see a city. The food was good, although the Kimchi is pretty spicey. I’d say, depending on what your goals are, you could definitely see a lot of Seoul over a long weekend. We didn’t get up to Namsun Park, or up the N. Seoul Tower, but that’s not usually our thing.

As a continuation of our short set of observations from Seoul, here’s the hotel portion. Since we didn’t see much of the city the last time we thought it would be nice to stay in a different location that was more convenient to the shopping district.

Reason for Choosing

We chose the Seoul Hyatt partially because we needed the stay credit and it was reasonable priced with using cash and points (which give stay credits). It ended up being ~100USD a night and ~7500 points a night vs ~350USD a night. Which for it’s convenient and free shuttle bus to shopping, dining, and metro (Myeongdong area), let alone the view of the city was a great value.

Free Hyatt shuttle bus

The bus has two stops both close to a metro stop. One is in the Iteawon area (circled lower) which has a lot of little restaurants, bars and some shops.

Hyatt area of Seoul

The other is at Myeongdong Station. There is certainly a lot of retail shopping and is a short walk to Namdaemun Market.

Myeongdong

Lobby and Check-in/Check-out Experience

We were ultimately checked-in in the lounge. When we arrived, the front desk staff escorted us to the lounge for check-in, but we both agreed, after a long trip it’s hard hearing that you just can’t check-in at the main desk when there is no one around. The main lobby and reception area was quite large and spacious. While the hotel was pretty full while we were there it never felt crowded.

Check out also occurred at the lounge. We were able to book our trip back to the airport (KAL airport bus) and charge it to the room with out extra fees.

Lobby

Where the hotel stood out

The room was standard but had a good location a floor above the lounge. The nicest part was that the bed. It was fantastic. One of the best beds we’ve had at a hotel. Great mattress, although it could’ve used an extra pillow or two. This was our second time one floor above the lounge in Seoul and both times there was a stairwell down to the lounge. This was a big plus, as the elevators were slower than we would have liked.

Bed

Since it was my wife’s birthday I offered up grabbing cake or a treat from the bakery. Well it turns out they had cream horns. Which happened to be one of her favorite childhood deserts. She totally vouches for them. It was one of the best she’s had or so she said.

Cream Horn

Where the hotel fell a little short

While the dinner and the breakfast were not much to write home about they did surfice. One of the nice things is there is a separate lounge for families at night. This other lounge is open all day as well and located on another floor.

Dinner

Breakfast

The pool looks very big from the room but becomes very pack on the weekends. The spa and pool area are nice but while we were there they did not handle the crowds very well. There was not a lot of seating by mid-day, and the hot tubs (one indoor, one out door) were not properly sized to the size of the hotel. One word of note: the hotel sells passes to the local families to use the spa/pool/exercise area. This seems to increase the number of people in this part of the hotel on the weekends.

Pool

Wrapping Up

Though there are a few less than positives for this hotel the staff was fantastic. The convenience of the location was wonderful. If you are into hiking or wandering through a park this is a great option in Seoul, as it is very near the Namsan park that houses Namsan tower, which has great views of the city (perhaps even better views than from the hotel).

Great hotel view

Would we stay here again? Most likely, though we might avoid a weekend stay.

A few weeks ago, I took my wife to Seoul, South Korea for a long weekend to celebrate her birthday. We found what I had thought was a great premium fare (later finding out, it wasn’t as great), and figured, why not? Brass ring, right? So we did it.

We had been to Seoul before, but only for 1 full day (2 nights though), and we spent most of the day touring the Korean Demilitarized Zone. This time, we were spending 3 nights, and were determined to see more of the city.

My hope isn’t to offer a standard trip report, rather I’ll offer my observations. The first part will be of the flights, the second part will be of the hotel (as part of the Saturday Special), and the final part will be of our time spent in Seoul.

The flight outbound (DFW-ICN)

We flew “Flagship First Class” both ways on American. The seat isn’t bad for the product, but its not Emirates, Etihad, Singapore or Cathay Pacific.

Obligatory photo of seat.

The amenities are consistent with US flagged carriers, but where American shines brighter are the Pajamas.

A slew of goodies (Pajamas are second from the top).

Its important to note – American has changed the pajamas. I can’t prove it, but I feel like these just aren’t as nice as the ones we got in 2013. The only visible difference is that the new ones have navy blue trim and crew necks, compared to red trip and v-necks from last year.

The cabin had at most 6 paying passengers out of 16, and I think that is stretching it, so we had great service. The Purser, Al, was probably the first US Flagged carrier purser that I have seen to change jackets for the meal service (he went from the normal blue blazer to a checkered sports jacket). He took pride, it was clear.

Even though we were flying on one of American’s non-reconfigured 777-200LRs (eventually the 772’s will lose First Class in favor of lay flat business), I had the chance to ask him of his thoughts of American’s 777-300ER (77W). I’ve been looking forward to fly it (and will in November, unfortunately missing the #westcoastDO), so I was curious to hear the crew perspective. Despite the more comfortable crew rest, they don’t like it. 10 seats across in economy is horrible on the crew, and even though the business cabin goes from 5 seats across to 4, his perception was that the aisles were tighter (perhaps just as tight as economy).

The flight home

I can’t figure out why, but I seldom find a crew that is happy on the flight to their home country. Boarding, we started taking photos of the cabin line usual. No sooner had I gotten our bags up before the pursur (who will remain nameless for his own protection) informed my wife that she could not take photos of the cabin or the crew due to federal security regulations. She was taking photos of the seat–sheesh. Later in the flight, my wife did grab a photo of me in my favorite work space in the air. (albeit at night).

My favorite work space in the air.

The same purser, who ultimately was fairly personable, noted as we were descending into Dallas-Fort Worth that all Bose Headphones in Business and First needed to be collected and secured for customs. Now I’ve heard about photos before, but Bose headphones, a customs matter? That was a first.

Oh, and as an aside, our second purser had the same opinion of the 77W.

Wrapping up

The flights were good, not great, but I’m not sure how you can expect more. I found the crew’s opinions of the 77W to be eye-opening. It wasn’t a huge surprise with respect to economy, but business was surprising. I still look forward to flying the 77W (but I will note my systemwide upgrades have already come through for business).

Note: Every so often I’ll try to highlight a hotel experience and share my thought process for choosing the hotel.

Last year my wife and I took a trip to Seoul, South Korea and chose to stay at the Renaissance Seoul Hotel. It was an easy, competitively priced, and had a lounge. We have since been back to Seoul and tried another hotel out – will share that next week.

Reason for Choosing

For this trip, we were only going to be in Seoul for two nights, arriving in the afternoon, and leaving the day of checkout before breakfast (we had an early flight out). For the first night I was able to use a Marriott Rewards Credit Card Annual Certificate (Category 5 or below), which made the $266 price tag for the second night more palatable. One of the key discriminators for me in choosing was the lounge; I really appreciate lounge access, and being able to relax in the lounge with a drink (gratis) after a long day of touring a city.

The last reason was location. The Renaissance Seoul Hotel is in the Gangnam Business District. I thought this would be nice because there was mass transit nearby, which provided a great connection to where we wanted to see.

Map showing the proximity of mass transit to hotel (courtesy of Marriott website).

Lobby and Check-in/Check-out Experience

Much of the time when I check into a Marriott, it is in the lobby (as opposed to Hyatt which will sometimes make you go up to the lounge). Here the front desk was easily found, and the lobby overall was well laid out with a cafe, bar area, and conveniently placed elevators. Overall, Check-in was quick enough, and at Check-out we were able to purchase tickets for the KAL Limousine (bus service to Incheon International Airport (ICN)).

Lobby

Where the hotel stood out

The Executive Lounge met expectations for the spread, but stood out with some of the desserts (see photo below), which were particularly good. The drink selection (also below) was also more than sufficient.

Snacks and Drinks in the Lounge.

The bed was one of the better beds we had experienced, but I will caveat this with us being pretty exhausted both nights (the first we traveled, and we spent the entire second day touring the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and city).

Bed

The breakfast spread. The Renaissance Seoul Hotel serves breakfast for elites and club level guests in their “Club Horizon” which is a nice area with a great view of the city, and a reasonable breakfast spread for Asia (I’d compare it most readily to what we’ve seen in Hong Kong verse what we’ve seen in Southern Thailand).

Breakfast Buffet in Club Horizon.

Wrapping Up

While we didn’t choose to stay here our second trip, we really did enjoy our stay and would stay here again. The proximity to mass transit and in general being in a walkable area was a big plus for us.

If you’re interested in more information about Seoul, this is a great resource, and I would also highly recommend a DMZ tour – it was very moving for me.

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